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| Image by Annemieke Cloosterman |
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A GREETING
My lips praise you because your faithful love
is better than life itself!
(Psalm 63:3)
A READING
The name of the first river is the Pishon. It flows around the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. That land’s gold is pure, and the land also has sweet-smelling resins and gemstones.
(Genesis 2:11-12)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
From the north comes golden light,
the awesome splendor of God.
(Job 37:22)
A REFLECTION
In the beginning, the spirit of the Lord was carried over the waters and the waters overflowed the earth. The water remained without wavering, but by breathing the Spirit made it flow. These waters poured across the land and strengthened it, lest it break apart. And where the fiery power that flows in water penetrated the earth, the fire of the water transformed the earth into gold. Where the purity of the flooding water penetrated the earth, that purity transformed itself and the earth which it suffused into silver. Where the fluctuation of the water penetrated the earth, moved by the wind, it and the earth it transfused were changed into steel and iron. Therefore, iron and steel are stronger than other metals, just as the fluctuation of water moved by winds is stronger than that moved by calm breezes. And, just as the spirit of the Lord first made the waters flood, so it also vivified the human being and gave plants, trees, and stones their vitality.
- from Physica, by Hildegard of Bingen,
found in Hildegard von Bingen's Physica:
The Complete English Translation of Her Classic Work on Health and Healing
VERSE OF THE DAY
Even if you lie down among the sheepfolds,
there are wings of a dove covered with silver;
its pinions covered in precious gold.”
(Psalm 68:13)
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| Image by Annemieke Cloosterman |
Hildegard's book Physica describes in some three hundred pages the healing properties of plants and trees, species by species. She explains the divine properties in the elements, trees, stones, fish, birds, animals, reptiles and even metals. "[Gold's] nature is somewhat like the sun’s, and it is almost like the element air," she writes. "Steel... nearly represents the divinity of God."
It might be very hard for us to imagine gold and steel as having 'divine properties.' Hildegard's expansion of the Genesis story to show how metals were created is a beautiful piece of writing that even sounds biblical. Skilfully she shows us how divine energy from the sun and the sea forges metals in the earth that can be used for healing purposes.
In this way, Hildegard teaches us that what humankind makes with the earth's resources can have the power to give life, when used wisely and even prayerfully. Our contemporary skyscrapers, constructed as monuments to our desire for profit and gain, are closer to Solomon's Palace than to the healing properties Hildegard suggests in Physica. She even offers a recipe for how gold can be eaten in cake to fortify the body.
If divine energy is in all metals, how is God present in the cobalt that goes in our cell phones, mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where the industry depends upon child labour? How will we find God's presence in the strip mining that creates tailings of chemicals? What is the responsibility we have to the divine that is in our natural industries?
Hildegard believed that we all have the capacity to foster life. When we reflect on our lives, how much life have we fostered in Creation? How can God's love forge in us a new consciousness and care for it?
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Scripture passages are taken from The Common English Bible.
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LC† Radiant Earth, Sacred Calling is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work.
Thank you and peace be with you!
